User:SirYodaJedi/Image formats
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Note:The Steam versions of 
support RLE-compressed TGA files for certain use cases, such as skyboxes and detail textures. Other use cases, such as taskbar icons, do not support RLE compression.
Not all programs can export compressed TGAs; GIMP does this when exporting to TGA by default. Make sure that the origin is set to "bottom-left".
Note:All formats supported by 
can be compressed with PNG-style deflate compression, using its custom v7.6 VTF format. This is used in conjunction with whatever inherent GPU-supported compression format is being used; as such, it is not mentioned in this table.
| Supported in | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Format | GoldSrc |
 Source |
Portal 2: Community Edition |
 Source 2 |
Compressed? | Recommended usage |
| P8 (256-color) | Yes, except for main menu backgrounds and detail textures | No (use BGR565 or BGRA8888) | No (use BC7) | No (use BC7) | Yes, 1 palette for entire image with 256 colors | : Most textures (world, models, sprites, overviews, etc.)
|
| BGR888, RGB888 (24-bit true color) | Limited; only for skyboxes, detail textures, main menu backgrounds, and VGUI2 elements | Yes | Yes | Yes | No (except in , see notes)
|
: Skyboxes, detail textures, main menu backgrounds, and VGUI2 elements
|
| BGRA8888, RGBA8888 (32-bit true color with translucency) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | : Densely detailed textures with alpha channels
|
| BGRA8888, RGBA8888 (Source 1 Compressed HDR) | No | Yes | Yes | No (use BC6H) | Yes (see Valve_Texture_Format#HDR_compression) | : HDR skyboxes
|
| BGR565 (16-bit color) | No | Yes | Yes | No (use BC7) | No | : Low-res normal maps without specular mask;
|
| BGRA4444 (16-bit color with translucency) | No | Yes | Yes | No (use BC7) | No | : Moderately detailed low-res normal maps with specular mask via alpha channel ($normalmapalphaenvmapmask).
|
| I8 (8-bit greyscale with translucency) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | : Specular masks for materials without a normal map.
|
| IA88 (8-bit greyscale with translucency) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | : Greyscale decals with an alpha channel
|
| DXT1 (AKA BC1) | No (except in  Counter-Strike (Xbox))
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes; two explicit BGR565 colors and two interpolated colors per 4x4 block | , , & : Moderately detailed high-res textures with no alpha channel
|
| DXT3 (AKA BC2) | No | Yes | Yes | No | RGB only; RGB handled like DXT1, with uncompressed 4-bit alpha | , : Not recommended, use DXT5 instead
|
| DXT5 (AKA BC3) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes; RGB handled like DXT1, with alpha handled like ATI1N | , , & : Moderately detailed high-res textures with an alpha channel
|
| ATI1N (AKA BC4) | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes; four explicit I8 values and four interpolated values per 4x4 block | : Specular masks for materials without a normal map.
|
| ATI2N (AKA BC5) | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes; two independent ATI1N-style channels (red and green) | : $blendmodulatetexture, perhaps
|
| BC6H (AKA BC6) | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes; four explicit RGB161616 or RGB16f16f16f colors and four interpolated colors per 4x4 block | & : HDR skyboxes
|
| BC7 (AKA BC6) | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes; four explicit RGB888 or RGBA8888 colors and four interpolated colors per 4x4 block | & : Whenever DXT1 or DXT5 is too blocky and/or DXT green tint needs to be avoided.
|
Note:The Steam versions of support RLE-compressed TGA files for certain use cases, such as skyboxes and detail textures. Other use cases, such as taskbar icons, do not support RLE compression.Not all programs can export compressed TGAs; GIMP does this when exporting to TGA by default. Make sure that the origin is set to "bottom-left".
Note:All formats supported by can be compressed with PNG-style deflate compression, using its custom v7.6 VTF format. This is used in conjunction with whatever inherent GPU-supported compression format is being used; as such, it is not mentioned in this table.